UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

my hdd root dir keeps dumping on me but when i install i use native linux format i i lost again yesterday is there a recovery methead? or a safe mode that i can go into ? i made a boot disk
is it wise to let the formater program to auto alcate? give me a 5gb root drive and a 37gb home i relly don't need that much home space and is linux kernal stable ? or unix better like bsd or sun or is it not my kernal at all and my dev cdroms keep going back in befor i can take out the cdrom from the try
is there a fix for this problem and my cd times out and does not copy all of my programs sayes error rpm not found and i just finsished copy a mpeg to the home dir any hints to fix this so that the cdrom reads right my cdrom0 is a 52x and my cdrom is a 24x10x42 copys great to record but not to transfrer to my hdd


will any body help please

if the hard drive is a new drive with nothing else on it, then yes it is safe to let it auto partition it. i havnt used mandrake but it should let you see how its going to slice up your drive before it does the partitioning.